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Week 1: Discussion
The Three Questions, Values,
Personal Identities, and Dreams
Preparation:

Before going any further in this assignment, be sure you have actively read and reviewed all
of the materials in the Week One content areas.

Also, be sure you have completed the Values Checklist and the Dreams & Desires
Worksheet (attached documents) prior to starting this discussion topic.

Formatting Instructions:

Please sure to copy/paste the prompts (and not all the set-up information) into your
discussion topic thread, and then respond meaningfully to the prompts. (Remember,
sometimes it’s better to do this offline, and then create a thread to paste your entire
discussion topic entry directly into.)

Some Tips for Doing Well on Discussion Topics:

Many times, each of these prompts have more than one question – be sure to read each prompt
carefully, and respond to all aspects of each prompt. Short answers (two or three sentences) are
generally NOT acceptable. Remember, more is better in terms of thoughtful engagement and
writing. Also be sure to meaningfully connect with the readings (as well as any assessments and
other course content that may be applicable). Each discussion topic prompt warrants several well-
constructed paragraphs of content if you hope to earn a high score!

Be sure your writing shows evidence of having read all of the assigned chapters from your textbook
(and other assigned readings, web-links, assessments, etc. as applicable). Discussion topic threads
that don’t convey engagement in the various assessment instruments or integration of course
content do not score as well as those that do.

Also, remember that beyond what is asked for above, and for all written submissions, be sure it is
well written, easy to understand, free of spelling and grammar errors and that you follow the
formatting instructions (and include the prompts / questions prior to your responses).

Remember to save a hard copy of all of your work. You will need this in Learning Week 4
where you will be performing a qualitative thematic analysis. Save and print out your work.
Also, you will be adding your work here to your e-portfolio in a new “Self-Assessments &
Reflective Writing” section – See Week 3 Discussion Instructions for more information on that.

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Since much of what you are doing these first few weeks is building toward your qualitative thematic
self-analysis project in Week 6, you will want to have a good collection of qualitative data to draw
on, and here is where you start!

There are four prompts associated with this discussion topic.

Set-up for Three Questions Prompt (Prompt #1):

Review the three questions content under the Week 1 Lectures / Presentations content area. This
video is by Fr. Michael Himes, a theologian at Boston College.

Prompt #1: Take a moment to respond meaningfully to the “three questions” that are discussed as
key to vocational discernment, and provide any additional perspective that you may feel is
necessary. Don’t just settle for short, one sentence answers. Try to be very specific, aiming for a
couple of cohesive, well-written paragraphs in response to each of the three questions. Also, write
vividly and descriptively – paint a “picture” with your words here. Your responses to these
prompts shouldn’t read like a resume or take the form of “bullet points” – use analogies /
metaphors, engage and inspire us by “painting a picture” with your words, and make some
connections to the Father Himes videos.

The Three Questions:

What gives me joy? (What kinds of things am I doing when I’m most naturally content and happy?)

One of the things that gives me joy is being able to spend time with the people (or even animals) I
care about and who care about me. The people include my parents, younger brother, family over in
Australia, and friends all across the world. I get joy from traveling to places I am interested in or
have a connection to (ex: Australia, where the extended family is based). Another thing that gives
me joy is baking and learning new things to cook. Even if there are some moments where I get
frustrated, by the end of it all, I am happy to have learned to make a new dish and share it with
those around me. Finally, I find joy in biking and walking as a way to spend time with my parents,
but also get some exercising done.

What am I good at? (What are my strengths?)

There are several things that I think I am good at. First organizing and arranging information that I
am provided. By organizing the information, I am able to better understand it. This is an important
skill I have developed to help me succeed in school and my work. This is a big part of the way I learn
things, by organizing them first then understanding them.

Next is planning, in that I gather the information and put it together like a puzzle. The way the
puzzle fits together is my plan. It is what I do with the information and how I put it to use. It also
tells me the order in which I need to do things. I have learned that I can use this skill to help others.
Whether it is teaching someone how to swim or helping a friend plan a wedding, or managing a
project at work, it is the same set of skills.

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The third thing I think I am good at is counseling friends and colleagues who are looking for help or
guidance with difficult situations and decisions. This is based on active listening and an ability to
give honest and candid feedback while still being sensitive to people’s feelings.

I might be good at other things, but I do not have that much experience. I am not a person with
immediately obvious talents, like a great athlete, brilliant scientist or public speaker. I believe I
need more experience to better understand what I am good at. By spending some more time
learning about myself and gaining more experience, I hope to find something that inspires me
enough that I will work at getting good at it.

What does the world need me to do? (What can I contribute?)

I am not sure what the world needs me to do. Based on Himes “3 Key Questions” videos, I am
thinking about what others need from me. This “others” includes my parents. My parents need me
to finish school, get a job, and become self-supporting. Arizona State University needs me to
graduate and become successful in some way that represents the school well. My younger brother
needs my emotional support and encouragement as he finishes college soon and starts his
professional life. I suspended my work as an intern this year to give me the time to finish my
degree. So I do not have work colleagues that need anything from me right now. Like most people I
have friends and extended family, but do not see in those relationships what the world needs me to
do. Similar to the previous question, I think I will need some time and experience before I know
what the world needs me to do. It will take more time than this semester for me to figure this out. I
think the most appropriate goal for me is to figure out the next step after graduation.

Prompt #2: Values Checklist (Attachment): What were your top 5 values? What kinds of defining
characteristics did you associate with your values as you crossed them off the list one at a time until
you had only one value listed? What did you learn about your values hierarchy through this
activity?

My top 5 values were Freedom, Honesty, Meaningful work, Responsibility and accountability, and
Stability. The key characteristics that I associated with my value of Freedom were unrestricted,
flexibility, less stress, and no limitations. As for the key characteristics that I identified for
Honesty were sincere, practical, candid, and transparency. The key characteristics I connected
to Meaningful work is creative, purpose, value, brings joy, and sense of pride. For Responsibility
and accountability, the characteristics that I associated with this were empathy, mindfulness,
cooperative, teamwork, and taking ownership. Finally, the key characteristics that I identified
for the value stability were supportive, dependable, reliable, consistent, and predictability.

Through this activity, I have learned that many of the things I value start with being honest. It is
important that I am being honest with myself, being honest with others, being honest about my
responsibilities, and requiring others to be honest with me. Also, to be an effective leader
requires a clear understanding of what my values are and how they can help achieve my goals.
From this activity, I learned that my hierarchy of values can easily be moved around in a
different order, but the top few (example: five) are an essential part of my identity and what I
value in my life. Also, I learned how difficult it is to remove a value from my top 5 list. Although
I can assign a priority to the values, I would find it very difficult to give any of them up. That

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being said, this activity also showed me how my values might conflict with each other in certain
situations. For example, freedom might conflict with responsibility and accountability when it
comes to family, friends, and work responsibilities.

Set-up for Identity Exercise Prompt (Prompt #3):

Carefully read the instructions for the Identities Exercise (page 22 of your textbook), and follow
those instructions. Remember to be specific and detailed in your responses – at least as detailed as
the example given. Included at the bottom of this document is a template / table to help you
organize your thoughts. Feel free to use it or to create your own. Note: While this template suggests
some specific roles / categories, you may have more than one role in many of these areas (such as two
different jobs, with two very different influences on your identity). Be sure to define (and separate
out) each role as applicable to you.

Prompt #3: For this prompt, complete (and include) the identities exercise/table, and then answer
the following questions.

Table Template:

Areas of identity/Life How does this role How does this role Which of your
role define your self- influence your core values
concept or views? priorities and your aligns with this
I am a… actions? identity?

ASU Student (college) Source of pride and This is currently my Meaningful work
accomplishment in number one priority
advancing to a degree; and takes most of my
preparing for a career. time. It is essential to Responsibility
attain my goal of and accountability
Sense of privilege to go getting a job in Human
out-of-state for college. Resources (HR).

Sense of independence I spend less time on

by living away from my other activities to
home/no parents. focus on this role.
Intern (job/employee Help build my This became my top Meaningful work
at County of Santa confidence in my priority between
Clara) ability to succeed in a college
career. semesters/sessions. Responsibility
and accountability
Provide a sense of I learned to balance
progress toward my roles as a student Stability
achieving my goal of and intern during
working in HR. college semester.
Sister, Daughter, Niece, Gives a sense of I intentionally allocate Freedom
Cousin responsibility (being time in my schedule to
an older sister) from stay connected with
sharing experiences my family members. Honesty

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and giving advice to my Responsibility

younger brother. I enjoy sharing my and accountability
experiences and
Gives a sense of accomplishments with
identity and belonging family members. I
to an extended family enjoy it when they do
across the U.S. and the same.
Australia.

I get comfort from

being around family
members.
Australian, Northern- It gives me a unique It makes me more Freedom
Californian/Silicon identity and open minded about
Valley, American perspective, because of those who have a
my experience and different opinion or
cultural influences viewpoint than me.
from these different
areas. I embrace people from
different cultures and
backgrounds.
Multi-racial It gives me a sense of I share a lot of Freedom
being unique while still empathy and
being connected with tolerance for those of
multiple races, different racial
Hispanic, African, backgrounds.
European, and Indian.
Moderate Democrat It makes me feel that I I do not participate in Freedom
am open to different extreme political
perspectives. discussions or
activities. Honesty
It helps me feel like I
am less influenced by I try to accommodate Meaningful work
my biases and allows civil conversations
room for friends and when there are Responsibility
sources of information different political and accountability
with different political points of view.
opinions.
Stability
Upper-middle social It gives me a sense of It motivates me to live Freedom
class obligation that I will go up to the expectations
to college, get a degree, of my family.
and a good job when I Honesty
graduate. It motivates me to
achieve enough Meaningful work
I have a sense of financial success to
privilege, because of maintain the lifestyle I Responsibility
the opportunities I have grown up with. and accountability
have had to travel, go
to out-of-state college,

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and experience a wide Stability

range of activities like
snow skiing, attend
concerts, theater, and
go to sporting events.
A person with Dyslexia It gives me a sense that I have learned various Freedom
I am different than skills to help adapt to
most people and various situations and
approach problems be successful. Honesty
differently.
I do not try to do too Meaningful work
I am able to empathize many things at once.
and be patient with Instead spend more Responsibility
people who have their time focusing on doing and accountability
own challenges. a good job on a
smaller number of
I feel I have to work tasks. Stability
harder and longer than
most people to be I actively ask
successful. questions when I am
uncertain and seek
feedback on my work.

● How do your various roles influence how you see yourself?

I see myself as a well-rounded person from a relatively privileged background. I believe my
role as a multicultural person with roots in both the United States and Australia, plus my
college education and my traveling and cultural experiences make me a well-rounded
person. My role as a member of the upper-middle class with a supportive and stable family
makes me feel grateful and privileged.

I see myself as an honest, empathetic, and open minded person. My role as a university
student plus growing up in Silicon Valley and traveling across the U.S., Europe, and
Australia, has made me more open-minded and empathetic. My role as a dyslexic person has
also made me empathetic and tolerant of people who see and respond to the world
differently. Living with dyslexia has taught me the value of being honest with myself and
how I can be successful moving forward.

I see myself as being a hardworking and responsible member of society. Even though I come
from an upper-middle class background, I have had to work hard to get to where I am and I
know I will have to continue working hard to be successful. I have learned to be empathetic
and tolerant, as well as accountable for my own actions. I think this makes me a more
responsible member of society.

● How do your various roles influence how you see the world?
My various roles have influenced the way I see the world in the following ways. I view the

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world with more questions than answers. As a student, majoring in Organizational

Leadership and having very little work experience, I do not know what kind of job I will find
or where I will end up working. As a moderate democrat in a highly polarized American
political situation, I question how the laws and culture of the country are changing and what
that could mean to me as a young woman of color.

My role as an upper-middle class adult from Silicon Valley, getting a college education
makes me optimistic that I will find a way to be successful and happy. I think I view the
world with a pretty open mind and a lot of curiosity. I believe this is because I have traveled
quite a bit and experienced a variety of cultural influences. These experiences have been
mostly very good. My mom is an Australian citizen who immigrated to Australia with her
family when she was very young. Her family culture is from Mauritius, but my generation of
cousins are very much Australian. My father’s background is mid-western U.S. Growing up
in Silicon Valley, I have experienced Indian, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese cultures, just
to name a few, directly through my friends whose families are first generation immigrants.
So there is a lot of diversity in my experiences, but it is still mainly middle-class and up
experiences, except for my volunteer work. All these diverse influences in Silicon Valley are
also basically optimistic. People come to Silicon Valley because they believe they can
succeed.

Finally, as a person with dyslexia, I can see that it is easier for some people to succeed in the
world than others. I also see that some have to work harder than others just to survive. I see
how this applies to people with physical disabilities and people who are born into poverty.
But my heritage also shows me that you can sometimes change your situation to make
things better. My grandparents moved from Mauritius to Australia to make a better
situation for their daughters and later when my mom was older, she moved to the U.S. for a
better economic opportunity.

● How do you currently prioritize your roles? Which roles are most (and least) attended to?
Are you happy with this prioritization? What changes would you like to make?

I currently prioritize my roles based on what is important to me personally, but also will
help me with reaching my dreams and goals in life. My number one priority right now is on
my role as a student. This is followed by my family roles. I completed my role as an intern
earlier this year so I could focus on making sure I graduate by December 2023. Everything
else has a lower priority for me for now. I am happy with this priority until I graduate. After
that I will put more priority on my role as an intern or hopefully an employee. I also plan to
explore job opportunities in Australia. I hope that I can move there and be able to work
there after I graduate.

● How do you see your roles changing in the future – and how will that affect your
identity?

My role as an Arizona State University student will end in December. I do not have a job yet,
so my role as an intern or employee is uncertain. However, I am looking forward to my

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identity changing from student to graduate, but I do not think I will stay very happy in this
role until I have a job. Once I have a job, I hope to begin developing an identity as a Human
Resources professional. If I work for a good company with a good future, I expect to develop
an identity as an employee of that company. If I can find a job in Australia, my identity as an
Australian will develop as well. If I move to Australia, my family identity will grow as a niece
and cousin. After graduation, I also expect to develop other roles and identities that are
related to my hobbies like baking, biking, swimming and snow skiing.

● Look back at your Values Worksheet and your Identities Table, explore how your values
and identities align, explain inconsistencies and gaps.

My top five values were Freedom, Honesty, Meaningful Work, Responsibility and
Accountability, and Stability.

My identities as being upper-middle class, a moderate democrat and family member align
well with my value of stability. Both of my parents have been present and supportive my
whole life. Their marriage has been stable and we have lived in San Jose, California since
I was four years old. My family life has been very stable. Being part of the upper middle
class also allows me to have a stable economic life. Finally, my status as a moderate
democrat means that I do not favor extreme political views and prefer gradual change and
consistent, thoughtful policies.

My identity as an Arizona State University student and intern aligns with my value of
Meaningful Work. I believe my status as a member of the upper middle-class also aligns
with the value of Meaningful Work, because I have access to an education that allows me
to consider this value and have grown up in a social situation where the adults around me
have this value. In other words, most of the adults in my life have careers where they
consider their work meaningful and not just a job.

My identities as an Arizona State University student, intern, family member, and person
with dyslexia are all aligned with my values of Responsibility and Accountability. As a
student and intern I am taking responsibility for my career goals and results. I am
accountable for my performance at work. As a family member I have certain
responsibilities when I am living at home and I am accountable to my parents for
succeeding in school. As a person with dyslexia, I have learned that I have to take
responsibility for my work and be accountable to myself and others for how I spend my
time and what I focus on.

I think my biggest gap between my values and my identities is in the area of Freedom.
This is where I have some inconsistencies or conflicts. I have goals and interests that I
would like to pursue, but feel like I do not have the freedom to pursue them. I would like
to move to Australia, but I need to find a job there to do that. I believe I need to graduate
from college to get a good job. I would like to get better at networking and attending

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social events, but I also need to focus a lot of time on school so that I get the grades I
need to graduate. I feel like I will need to constantly make choices and compromises
between this value and other values and goals for the rest of my life. I think I will learn
some skills in this class that can help me do that.

Prompt #4: Dreams and Desires Worksheet (attachment): What underlying meaning did you
discover through exploring your dreams and desires in this manner? Can you see a connection
between what you desire and your inner sense of purpose? Explain.

I discovered that I do not have any grand life goals to change the world or achieve some great
accomplishment at this point in my life. Although I do have a lot of personal goals that involve
travel, self-improvement and developing my career in Human Resources. I also want a more active
social life. Because I have had to focus so much of my time and energy on my studies, I feel that I
have sacrificed most of my social life. My list included a number of self-care activities that I would
like to devote more time to. For example, reading books, having a more consistent workout routine,
going to sporting events, and expanding my cooking skills.

I still have a lot of questions and curiosity that is reflected in my dreams and desires. I am still
discovering what I like, what I am good at, and who I am. I have traveled enough to know that I like
it and find different cultures interesting and engaging. I am not sure how this fits into a purpose yet,
but could fit into a job. My value of stability may have to take a backseat while I travel and
experience different things to find my life purpose.

Peer Responses (3): part 2 of Initial Post (above)

Hi Ivan, I appreciate your approach of explaining what gave you joy when you were younger to
where you are now. As for what you are good at, I think for many people it can be hard to uphold
the same values whether you are at home or not; but I am glad to hear you are able to manage that.
I also enjoyed looking at your chart and seeing how your “areas of identity/life role” tie into how it
connects with your self-concept or views and the influence it has over your priorities and actions. I
appreciate your honesty about how even though you want to say being a father or son is your top
priority, and yet the reality is your job is the top priority. Thank you for sharing this first post and I
look forward to what else you end up sharing in your future posts.

Hi Mercedes, I was able to relate about how spending time with family can bring joy. I am curious
though if there are other things that bring you joy, perhaps going someplace meaningful to you. I
also could relate to your response in part of “how do you currently prioritize your roles?”, because I
have also prioritized my role as a student at the moment, but know this will change after
graduation. I enjoyed reading about your dreams and desires. I think you did an excellent job
explaining how they correlate with your life’s purpose and work.

Hi Patricia, I really enjoyed hearing you discuss the things that joy. I really enjoyed both parts of
you explaining how nature affects you, but also the joy from helping others. As you discuss later, I
can see that helping other people seems to be an important value you hold. I also enjoyed reading
about your values and explanations of them. I like hearing how you use humor in not just your
personal life, but have been able to implement it into your professional life as well. Additionally, I

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like how you were able to explain the connection of your dreams and desires to your values along
with your sense of purpose.

OGL 482 Pro-Seminar II-SP2018